1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, for example, to a pedal apparatus for an electric motorcar having a braking operation mechanism and an accelerating operation mechanism or a pedal apparatus for a motor vehicle having a throttle mechanism.
2. Prior Art
In the prior art, as a technology of this type, for example, an accelerator and brake pedal apparatus for a motor vehicle invented by the present inventor is known (International Publication WO02097550). The accelerator and brake pedal apparatus is a brake pedal apparatus including an accelerator mechanism having an auxiliary pedal connected to a brake pedal, which is operated in the vertical direction, an accelerator pad operated in the lateral direction, the accelerator pad being disposed on the auxiliary pedal, the accelerator mechanism being driven using the accelerator pad. The accelerator pad is formed of a panel member with the center portion thereof protruded outward into a convex shape, and the accelerator mechanism is operated using an inclined plane of the convex shape.
The accelerator mechanism at least includes an accelerator lever which receives an operation of the accelerator pad and an accelerator wire arm having an accelerator wire connected thereto, and is configured in such a manner that the accelerator wire arm acts in the direction to pull up or push down the accelerator wire by the operation of the accelerator lever.
In this technology in the prior art described above, even when the brake pedal is depressed with the accelerator in an operating state, the accelerator pad is moved forward together with the auxiliary pedal by the depressing operation consequently, whereby the accelerator lever is restored to its inoperative position immediately when changing the pedal to be depressed to the brake pedal without a moment's delay and the accelerator is turned OFF to allow the brake function to operate normally. Therefore, an erroneous operation is eliminated, and hence occurrence of accidents is prevented.
However, since the accelerator mechanism in the prior art described above is made up of the accelerator lever which receives an operation of the accelerator pad and the accelerator wire arm having the accelerator wire connected thereto, a driver is still required to turn his or her toe outward about his or her heel and move the accelerator pad laterally to turn one end side of the accelerator lever, thereby operating the accelerator wire in the direction of pulling up or pushing down via an accelerator wire arm engaged with the other end side. Therefore, there are problems as follows. The driver is required to operate the accelerator pad by turning his or her toe in the opening direction and the closing direction repeatedly and a wide operating width is required for the accelerator lever to pull up or push down the accelerator wire. Therefore, if the operating width is wide, a force corresponding thereto is needed. Consequently, when driving for a long time, fatigue is accumulated and ultimately fine adjustment of the accelerator becomes difficult.
Therefore, the accelerator and brake pedal apparatus having a configuration to operate the accelerator with the accelerator wire as in the prior art is not suitable practically for electric motorcars or for motor vehicles having a throttle position sensor.